


Dead and Gone

by DefaltManifesto



Series: 30 Day Song Lyric Challenge [3]
Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: Soen no Kiseki/Akatsuki no Megami | Fire Emblem Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn
Genre: Character Study, Gen, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-04
Updated: 2017-12-04
Packaged: 2019-02-10 09:53:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12909489
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DefaltManifesto/pseuds/DefaltManifesto
Summary: A small one-shot collection of drabbles from various points of view after Ike leaves Tellius





	Dead and Gone

**Author's Note:**

> This day's fic is based on the following lyric from Scream My Name by Tove Lo: 
> 
> "When I'm dead and gone/will they sing about me/dead and gone/will they scream my name?"
> 
> I actually still have a fic coming one day that's all about Ike post-game but for now enjoy this teaser. I had fun with this one.

Ike never wanted to be remembered. From the beginning of his tenure as the head of the Greil Mercenaries, he’d been humble to a fault, and later when every country clamored for his help, the issue became clearer. While he was humble, he knew his strength could turn the tide of a war. That sort of powers was the kind many sought to control. Whether he liked it or not, when trouble arose, it would be Ike’s name they remembered.

And so he left.

Titania wasn’t surprised by it, nor is she surprised when she wakes up one morning to find Soren gone. He’d gotten used to them, and if pressed, Titania is sure he’d even say he liked them, but without Ike he had no real reason to stay behind. Still…she wonders if their leaving will accomplish what it’s meant to. The Greil Mercenaries know he won’t return. But the rest of the world…they’ll hold onto the hope of his return.

She wishes they wouldn’t. The mercenaries she now finds herself in charge of mourn him for a few days but like her, they weren’t surprised. Mist handles it better than any of them. She’s more serious now, not the optimist she once was even after Greil’s death. She’s no commander, but no one in their company hesitates to accept when she issues an order before Titania. Without her father or brother to overshadow her, she comes into her own just fine.

But she’ll never replace Ike. None of them will.

 

-.-

 

Elincia’s optimism is something of a royal treasure in Geoffrey’s opinion. After Lord Renning returns and takes the crown from her, or rather, after she willingly and gratefully cedes it over, she takes on a role more fitting to her personality. She becomes an emotional pillar, a symbol for the country to have confidence in while Lord Renning handles the work she’d never liked.

She holds out hope for a year that they will hear from him. Geoffrey watches her eagerly receive and open her mail each day and watches as her face falls when she reaches the end of the pile. It fills him with anger. Perhaps it was best for Ike to leave, but Geoffrey can’t help but think of it as a sort of selfish-ness, abandoning his friends and his family so that he can escape the limelight. But perhaps that isn’t a fair assessment of him.

Elincia grows more solemn after the third year of not even a simple letter. She doesn’t cry for him, but Geoffrey knows she won’t forget him any time soon. She mourns for him as if she’s died and she moves on but sometimes, he still sees her look out at the countryside waiting for him to appear when she needs him most.

 

-.-

 

Sanaki reads the final report from their search for Ike. She hadn’t been willing to give up on his disappearance for nearly five years and had sent every resource in the Begnion’s spy network out to try and find his whereabouts. In the end, she contracted Volke without the knowledge of anyone else in the Empire and now with that report on her desk…she must admit that perhaps it is time to abandon that hope that he would return.

Volke’s report is detailed. He’s left no turn unturned and even ventured deep into the lands of the Wolf Laguz but to no avail. There’s been no sightings of him, not even a whispered rumor. It’s downright infuriating. Perhaps, despite her best intentions, she’s become spoiled like the Empire she rules, but his disappearance feels like a slap in the face, a slight. It’s as though he believes he’s too good for them, as though he doesn’t trust them when she’d thought that by now, she’s done more than enough to earn the trust of all her allies.

But then, maybe her ego has gotten to her. After all, Ike did not give her more respect than he gave any of his other allies. He was annoyingly egalitarian that way. She closes the report and leans back in her seat.

Crimea will remember Ike as the man who saved their country from destruction. Daein will remember him as the man who helped them lift the cruel yoke of Begnion’s occupation, Gallia will see him as the man who united them with Beorc, the Hawks and the Crows as the man who saved the Herons. Goldoa will remember him as the man who brought them out of seclusion. But Begnion…

Sanaki will ensure Begnion does not remember him for anything. Someone so willing to abandon them does not deserve a legacy.

 

-.-

 

Peace settles over Tellius for the first time in possibly centuries. The Hawks grow restless without something to test their prowess against, and so Tibarn organizes annual tournaments with Gallia so their rage doesn’t turn into a calling for war over the slightest infraction of Begnion. Reyson doesn’t understand it. He’s almost positive he’s the only one besides his siblings who is grateful for the peace Tellius has finally found when it comes to the Bird Tribe populations.

The cost of that peace though…

The countries, even Goldoa, are evenly matched now. War would lead to nothing but a stalemate now without a figure strong enough in all the continent to break it the way Ike could. With no Ike around, there was no hope that one country could enlist his services. Reyson was certain if he’d stayed, everything he’d feared would come to past. Beorc and Laguz alike were flawed creatures and would always bend towards war. Herons were the only group exempt from such a flaw, though Reyson supposed even he had been corrupted by the nature of the Hawks.

Then, he’d never seen it as a corruption.

Generations of Beorc would pass and they would all forget about Ike of the Greil Mercenaries. He would go down as one of those unnamed heroes who brought peace back to the land. But the Laguz?

The Laguz would remember him for centuries. Reyson will make sure of that.

 


End file.
